A Raise For County Commissioners Is Only Fairto Taxpayers

By Michael Lewis
Miami-Dade commissioners for the eighth time are asking voters to raise their pay. Let’s hope the eighth time is the charm.

Since 1957, commissioners have gotten $6,000, lowest in the state, although their responsibility is heavier than any other commission’s.

They oversee a $6.8 billion budget and a landmass larger than 65 nations’ and serve a population larger than about 100 nations’, a labor that for some of them is full-time.

That massive responsibility should, in fact, be full-time for all of them, but few can work 2,000 hours a year for $6,000. That’s $3 an hour, less than half the legal minimum wage and far less than they’d get flipping burgers. Forget for the moment that some commissioners may not be qualified to flip burgers – because you get what you pay for.

That’s the problem – we get what we pay for. While some of our commissioners are conscientious, some intelligent, some totally ethical – yes, they are! – you need more than the fingers on one hand to count the commissioners who have left in disgrace or to jail. It was the right job for them – $6,000 and all they could steal.

The fact is, for what we pay, we have a great commission. After all, how many star employees would you have at $3 an hour?

Some observers might say a bunch of clowns doesn’t deserve more than $6,000. Forget for the moment whether that’s a fair characterization. That’s not the issue. The question is not: What do present commissioners deserve? It’s: What kind of commissioners do we deserve?

The commission has put on the Sept. 5 ballot a raise to $89,000. Don’t we deserve commissioners worth at least $89,000? Shouldn’t we have $89,000 decision-makers spending $6.8 billion instead of $3-an-hour thinking? It would be a big step up.

Many will object that just paying more doesn’t elect more deserving candidates. They’re right.

But with seven commissioners up for fall re-election, the promise of $89,000 instead of $6,000 might lure challengers who couldn’t afford to work for virtually nothing, broadening the potential for an upgrade. Sure, incumbents usually win, but a pool of higher-quality challengers might overcome that.

Yes, a raise has been tried seven times and seven times voters have said no. Two years ago, the Miami Herald opposed a raise, yet it almost passed. This time, that paper is backing a raise. That might be the tipping point. (Miami Today has been backing a raise for more than a decade.)

Voters should aim for not just quality candidates but persons who will serve full time. A pay raise won’t by law mandate full-time work, but if it passes, voters should ask candidates about their outside jobs.

Most people can’t serve the public full time for $6,000 unless they’re rich or plan to make a bundle under the table, as some past commissioners have. But at $89,000 plus current fringe benefits of about $40,000, we should expect commissioners to forego outside jobs. That’s fair, even if the best of them could earn far more elsewhere. We should ask some sacrifice to hold office but not a vow of poverty.

The raise would cost taxpayers $1.1 million a year. But just one better-qualified candidate who cast just one deciding vote on one key issue could save that much and more in a flash.

Fair pay, in other words, is a great investment in Miami-Dade’s future.